Ait Bougmez
A High Farming Valley In The Central High Atlas, Widely Called The Happy Valley, With Flat Roofed Earthen Villages, Irrigated Terraces And The Main Walking Approach To The M'Goun Massif · Tabant, Beni Mellal-Khenifra
Ait Bougmez is a high valley in the central High Atlas, reached over a pass on about 100 km of mountain road from Azilal, and it is widely called the happy valley. The name is marketing and also roughly fair: a flat green floor at around 1,800 m, terraced barley and walnut, irrigation channels, and flat-roofed earthen villages strung along the edges where the fields stop and the slopes begin. What keeps it as it is, is the road - long, winding and occasionally closed, which filters out the coach trade entirely. People come to walk: village-to-village day walks on the valley floor, the conical hill of Sidi Moussa with its restored collective granary on top, dinosaur footprints in a rock slab at Ibaklioun, and the main walking approach to the M'Goun massif, Morocco's third-highest mountain. Honest caveats: there is no hotel strip, little English spoken, and nothing to do but walk, eat and sit on a roof watching the light move. That is precisely the point, and a visitor who wants comfort and variety should not come.
High valley in the central High Atlas reached over the Tizi n'Tirghist from Azilal, about 100 km by mountain road, Tabant, Beni Mellal-Khenifra, Morocco
There is nothing here with opening hours: the valley, the villages, the footpaths, the granary hill and the footprint slab are open country and free at any time, and the only fixed rhythm is the farming year and the weekly souk at Tabant - confirm the day locally, as it is the one morning the valley gathers. Guesthouses and homestays are open year round but several close or empty out between December and February, and food is cooked to order, so arrange it ahead or arrive before mid-afternoon. Getting there: minibuses and shared vehicles run from Azilal over the pass, taking roughly 3 to 4 hours for about 100 km, leaving mainly in the morning and almost never late in the day; by car allow the same and more in poor weather. Snow can close the pass for days in winter. Walking guides, mules and the M'Goun traverse are arranged in the valley a day ahead.